Act 2, Part 3 Summary

Cecily and Gwen meet for tea. Their conversation is sung to the tune of an Irish folk song and is a replay of a similarly exaggeratedly polite confrontation between Cecily and Gwendolen in Earnest. They talk about how Joyce's research materials are overdue, and how Cecily is going to be very lonely now that Lenin has left. They also argue over the respective merits of the so-called Tzara brothers, Tristan and Jack. Gwen argues that Tristan loves art for its own sake, and Cecily protests that Tristan now believes art should be created in the service of the people. We understand from this that Gwen is referring to the real Tristan Tzara, while Cecily is referring to Carr/Tristan.

At the height of the argument, Carr comes in holding the folder Cecily gave him. We remember that this is the folder originally picked up by...